


What Will Be

by ladydirewolf1



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Fix-it, Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective, First Kiss, Fix-It, M/M, TJLC | The Johnlock Conspiracy, tld
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-16 01:02:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9266792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladydirewolf1/pseuds/ladydirewolf1
Summary: What is and what will be are two very different things. A fix-it ending to the scene in The Lying Detective that killed us all.





	

            “No. But it is what it is.”

            Sherlock’s fingers curled around the nape of John’s neck, brushing the short hairs, smoothing the soft skin. A tear blossomed on the silken fabric of his dressing gown, and the man against his chest shuddered—not even Sherlock’s arms could restrain the grief only now rising to the surface. Pain escapes the body like a creature escapes its cage, sobs ricocheting against ribs, seas pounding against quivering lashes, anguish let loose into the night, strangled by the confines of the human throat. It was a feeling he knew all too well.

            “It is what it is,” he said again, voice soft and breaking as it whispered out across John’s temple. His fingers constricted around John’s arm, pulling him closer, impossibly closer, closer than they’d ever been, closer than Sherlock had any right to be. And when he spoke, with his cheek pressed against John’s head and his heart hammering in time with another’s and the air of their little, musty flat charged and waiting and dripping with need—and when he spoke again, Sherlock knew there was no other way.

            “ _But it won’t always be that way_.”

            John stilled in his arms, and for a moment a bolt of fear struck his chest—all this time waiting, all the looks that lasted too long, the smiles behind a seemingly innocent word, the pain, the heartbreak, the loss…the accidental touches, the ones carefully placed.

            “I—I didn’t mean—”

            John raised his head, gazing up through tear-glazed eyes. Sherlock found his fingers fumbling for their place against John’s neck, unsure and hesitant, looking for a way out and finding none. There they hovered, waiting.

            “Then tell me,” John breathed out, voice cracking, straining, angry, sad. Most of all, his words were sad, aware while their speaker was not of what could never possibly come to be. “Tell me what you mean, or my god, Sherlock—”

            His fingers moved first, not to the spot against those short, silver hairs, but to the place where his hands were made to fit. Sherlock cupped John’s cheek, let his thumb brush across the corner of John’s lips. His eyes closed too soon. His heart beat too fast.

            So much unspoken, so much unsaid, so much pain from the waiting. So much pain waiting to be set free.

            There was only one thing left to do…only one thing left to be said, though a word never fell from Sherlock’s tongue.

            Their lips met, softly but sure, moving as one. Then like the sea greets her lover, the tide carried them forward, chest crushing against chest, hands finding hidden crevasses in the rocky shore, only found by those with years of knowing where to look. Sherlock stumbled backward, John pushed forward, both saying nothing. Both saying everything.

            A warm palm pressed firmly against his cheek drew him back up to the surface. Their lips parted, and when Sherlock’s eyes flickered open, he saw that he was not the only one gasping for air.

            _It is what it is_. Sherlock leaned his forehead against John’s as their breaths steadied as one. The pain was still there, it may always be, but in that moment, with John Watson in his arms, Sherlock realized that _what is_ and _what will be_ are two very different things.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you cry? I definitely did writing this...thanks for reading, and let me know what you thought! I know this is really short, so be sure to check out my other johnlock fics!


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